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continued from below:
... heck, I do it all the time, tying my pro-bono work for publicity generated by the goodwill, not to mention attracting potential clients. It's a win-win situation (instead of a tax break, I get good vibes and free publicity) but I don't go around with a halo on my head (okay, perhaps other people are installing the hallo around you) and saying it's all for the poor people, because using an iPhone to shoot a wedding is a huge disservice to any client, paying or otherwise.
Look, the perception may be, may be not, different from the reality, and as long as the poor people are happy, where's the problem? But we know, the Connect readers know, and sometimes, the intent is everything. And misrepresenting it is everything.
Kevin,
It would have been a different story if you had done it this way:
"Out of the goodness of my heart, and my desire to share my talent and expertise with others less fortunate, I will undertake this project, using the best affordable equipment (read: anything other than a any smartphone) to do justice to the significance o this event. In addition, just like so many other nameless people and organizations, I will do this without publicizing it, keeping in mind that this good deed is a reward in itself."
Instead, you go ahead and use equipment totally not suited for a wedding, any wedding, and while you profess helplessness in the uncontrollable publicity machine, you can't be really seen as putting a stop to it. Your passive-aggressive, sanctimonious holier-than-thou attitude is what is generating this firestorm. It is not the event itself that is drawing criticism.
Look, I admire what you do, warts and all, and I most likely would do the same thing ...to be continued
Mike Walters: Don't know what all the fuss is about. Mobile photography has been around for years. My DSLR is mobile, compact cameras are mobile, phones with cameras are mobile.
It would take courage if the photographer was not a big name photographer, was not published and was trying to make a business out of wedding photography.
Its all about using the right tools for the job. Nothing wrong with using a phone if thats what you decide is the right tool for the job. I am pretty sure that 99.9% of wedding photographers wouldnt take the chance of using a mobile phone as their only tool to photograph a wedding, which just about says it all I think.
So true.... when the 35mm Leica came out, it was looked down on as not as good as the square format... and it was "mobile", relatively speaking.
topstuff: Nice camera. Lovely image quality. Loads of lenses available.
In many ways it is a "no brainer" and an obviously safe purchase.
But here's the thing - and I know this is unusual here on DPR, but these days I prefer using an EVF. I prefer the EVF because I don't chimp after the image, but instead get it right before I shoot.
For ME at least, I don't think I am likely to buy another traditional mirrored DSLR again.
I would personally welcome seeing more FF cameras with EVF's.
An unusual opinion maybe, but some of us prefer the road less travelled.
I switched from the 5D/5D2 to the Sony SLTsparticularly for both the EVF and the hinge monitor. My mouth waters when I see the specs on the current ful frames from both Canon and Nikon, esp since the autofocus is a huge improv over the 5D2. But I need that EVF.
Rage Joe: Hate that cheap, overdone vignetting filter used in attempt to hide the really poor quality of the pictures.
If you want atmospheric images, go with the iPhone and its filters. I do and I have over 500 pics on my blog to show for it. If you want literal, faithful-to-what the eye sees, go with Regular digital pics. If I were a wedding client, I would ask primarily for regular and have the option of going atmospheric. But then beggars can't be choosers, and I mean that in a sympathetic way, so an iPhone regimen is imposed on them.
I like my iPhone pics but for this wedding, a healthy mix would have been great... And there is no shortage of local volunteers to do it.
Kim,
It's unfortunate that the good work/intentions of the Missionaries are buried under the technobabble. But then again, this forum is with dpreview, not with UTNE.
I personally am judgemental because unless the Connect article is skipping some specifics as to funding and who gets what, this event reeks of grandstanding and commercialism. It's like a Western company gives the island population $5,000: a huge fortune over there for medicine and infrastructure. Great! The problem comes when the the rights to these photos generate ten times or more for the "sponsor". Huge problem as far as copyrights issues and fair play.
tkbslc: "Kuster believes that iPhone photography allows portrait subjects to let their guard down becuase they are not looking at an intimidating DSLR."
So why not use an LX7 or rx100 or something? Even a GX1 with a 20mm f1.7. The iphone offers nothing special in this regard.
If he has the talent for shooting weddings and events (as opposed to paid models in a studio), he should be able to capture the essence of his subject with any camera.
We're also assuming that his subjects are techno-illiterate. I don't think they are. I've been to places in the Philippines without indoor plumbing, regular garbage collection, and intermmittent electrical power supply where the population was more technically savvy than your average Westerner. Same is true for materially-poor places in Vietnam, Thailand, etc.
This is more Western voyeurism of the poor.
Here are some ideas:
for a fraction of the cost of flying in Mr. Kuster, hire a local photographer... there's a whole bunch of talented people in the area.
auction the idea to Samsung, Nokia, Blackberry, Apple for donations/funding/sponsorship/goodwill for cold hard cash. Winners gets to have their phone used.
bind Mr. Kuster to a contract that any profits from books and spin-offs go back to the models, the people on the island.
For all the good intentions the participants may have (or lack), my perception is that this is more, and I can't get the phrase in my head, like Western voyeurism of the poor, and this is not unique in the history of photography.
Gary Martin: I have mixed feelings about this. I'm all for embracing new technologies, but there's something unsettling about war photos made to look like social media posts. Everyone wants to "grab eyeballs," but at what price? There's so much abstraction here, so much attention drawn to the media itself, that its subject is reduced to insignificance, at least to my jaded eyes.
"the medium is the message" (McLuhan)
88SAL: !Lets take our expensive phone and photograph conflict. Its got so much more to do with pro's Not even considering alternatives. It would seen that the phone they have bought to enforce their expensive image can do a job, as opposed to buying the phone Specifically for the job. I think tge difference between these two motivations is an important one.
Most likely, he took a whole bunch of other equipment and used the iPhone for scenes that just called for an iPhone/filter treatment.
Anyways, that's what I would do to cover the needs of different publications/agencies/etc.
johnmacp: You can praise or criticize all you like but the fact is that pretty much all the posts below me are arguing over the tools- iPhone, Android, filters, blah blah blah - says it all.
There are virtually no comments on the actual images presented making them simply uninformative window-dressing.
Whats the story behind them? Where are these people standing on a hill? What are these guys praying with a AK47 doing there, and what did they do next? What are they fighting for? Who are they fighting against? Do they have names?
THATS all that matters to me. And is that not what all this new-age connected PJ'sm is supposed to be about ? Telling stories?
I see precious little real communication going on here. SO if using the iPhone is supposed to aid communication of important issues and raise awareness it's failing miserably at least in this context - and I would argue that this is precisely the sort of place that communication should be happening.
Or am I missing something?
Unfortunately, in this case, "the medium is the message" (McLuhan)
dodgebaena: Ben Lowy will be good whether he uses a Speed Graphic, a Rolleiflex, a Nikon F, a Rollei SE, an OM-1, an iPhone, or a Diana F. He has used the real and perceived strengths of the iPhone to suit "his" content, and his way of seeing. What's wrong with that?
Slings and arrows will always be flung at the pioneers in any field. And thank goodness to dpreview for "CONNECT". It's a free service so take it or leave it. It always amazes me for people who complain when something that is for free turns out to be not to their liking, such as Facebook or Instagram. You can either take it or leave it. Seems to me "entitlement" is a chronic disesae.
does it matter what his motives are? whether he is leftist anti-war or right-wing, or a lackey of Apple, or whatever, whether he gets attention or not, his work is what it is. He will get the same attention if he takes it with a Nokia because he actually goes into places most of us won't dare go.
Have a look at his award-winning works NOT done with an iPhone (www.benlowy.com). He got attention for those too... just so happens some of us just read about it. In fact, he got paid for those commissioned work, and that's the best compliment.
Ben Lowy will be good whether he uses a Speed Graphic, a Rolleiflex, a Nikon F, a Rollei SE, an OM-1, an iPhone, or a Diana F. He has used the real and perceived strengths of the iPhone to suit "his" content, and his way of seeing. What's wrong with that?
Slings and arrows will always be flung at the pioneers in any field. And thank goodness to dpreview for "CONNECT". It's a free service so take it or leave it. It always amazes me for people who complain when something that is for free turns out to be not to their liking, such as Facebook or Instagram. You can either take it or leave it. Seems to me "entitlement" is a chronic disesae.
It was only a matter of time before Facebook needed to make money on its $1B investment. They should gave waited longer to harvest more photos. Not bad for a glorified $1.99 app.
I've never used Instagram and I never will.
JDThomas: I just saw the pricing for this lens. $1300?!? Not for a Tamron, no way. Drive this baby off the lot and it depreciates by 40%. I'll keep the Nikon thanks. VC is nice to have, but it's not a necessity especially with the way Nikons perform in low-light these days.
The Nikon 24-70 is a killer lens, with a better build and IQ, and you always know that you can resell your Nikon lens without losing too much.
As a working photographer, I DON'T buy a lens for its resale value (this is not gold, or silver). If it has good IQ and build Q, then the resale value will take care of itself, which is a bonus. The lens will pay for itself after a few jobs. I've had two Tamrons before and their IQ was more than acceptable to me.
Franka T.L.: Well, very well, a rather nice evolvement of the LX gene, BUT .. well there's now a camera on similar pricing and named the SONY RX-100. Seriously other than the slower and less wide coverage on the lens. There is really nothing there that why one should not go for the RX-100 instead.
Nikon, Canon, Samsung, Panasonic all go again renewing their top end DC, but sorry the DC had eveolved and Sony simply ( as in their word ) out in disruptive products and a good one AT THAT TOO !!
Now I await who will build the next 1' sensored quality compact , Fujifilm with its EXR sensor or Rioch's next GR-D or Sony's own ( with a different lens )
"other than the slower and less wide coverage..."
these two to me matters the most.... so I may upgrade from the LX3 to the LX7
A digital Nikon F2AS, full-frame, of course.
Also a NEX7 with the sensor from the NEX6, with PC sync socket, phase-detect, Steadyshot, and video capped at ISO6400.
Rage Joe: And to tell you the truth the pictures Angel Adams took/made are pretty. Pretty BORING.
Ansel Adams, the man and his achievements, doesn't need defending from negative criticisms that can only come, I am sure, from ignorance and other issues. Personally, I "grew" as a photographer from reading his books and consuming his photo advice. No less inspiring was his way of living. I got into 4x5, dip and dunk, and stained fingers because of Adams. Later on, even at 52, I am still shooting weddings and events beside 20-30 somethings because according to the studio who hires me, my photos have some depth, to them. Adams way of seeing was an inspiration and he still teaches me to this very day.
pabloban: Come on, people. Get over the sum paid.
Suckerbird is FBI's and NSA's best investment.
It means nothing for them paying even 10 bilions.
They work for the elite. They print that money out of nothing. They don't care.
They just got another great source of people's private photos under their jurisdiction. And can now add them to their giant database they have on us all.
Orwell wouldn't believe, how fast his predicaments fulfilled...
facebook, rightly or wrongly, has become the most effective tool for the West to help "oppressed" people obtain "mass" or "crowd" power to rise up against certain regimes. It's gives the mainland chinese authorities a headache, same with Putin. I billion won't buy too many fighter planes, won't cost any American lives, etc. 1B ispocket change in this scenario and it's in the best interest of Western governments to "grow" facebook. So maybe Zuckerberg got some "in kind" help (not that he needs any).
I had one of the first 5D's in Canada Oct 2005 and then after a shutter replacement, I got the 5D2. Full frame is nice but for a wedding photographer on a sub-contract, $3400 is a lot of weddings before I start earning for myself!
A $3400 camera without a swivel screen (for video)? Sorry, not for me.
I switched to Sony last November and the phase-detect autofocus in video plus the articulating screen was the selling point for me.